(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The centre-left vote is split just months before a new presidential election takes place in Chile, according to a poll by Ipsos. 24 per cent of respondents would vote for former president Eduardo Frei Ruiz Tagle in this year’s ballot, while 22.8 would back former Socialist Party (PS) member Marco Enríquez-Ominami.
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The centre-left vote is split just months before a new presidential election takes place in Chile, according to a poll by Ipsos. 24 per cent of respondents would vote for former president Eduardo Frei Ruiz Tagle in this year’s ballot, while 22.8 would back former Socialist Party (PS) member Marco Enríquez-Ominami.
Conservative Sebastián Piñera of the Alliance for Chile (APC) remains in first place with 34.1 per cent. Support is lower for senator Alejandro Navarro of the Broad Social Movement (MAS), left-wing candidate Jorge Arrate, and independent lawmaker and former Senate president Adolfo Zaldívar.
In a second round scenario featuring Piñera and Frei, the conservative candidate holds a four-point advantage over the former head of state.
Frei belongs to the governing centre-left alliance known as the Agreement of Parties for Democracy (CPD). Enríquez-Ominami recently split from the Socialists to run as an independent.
The CPD’s Michelle Bachelet—a former defence minister—was elected in a January 2006 run-off with 53.49 per cent of all cast ballots. Piñera was second with 46.51 per cent.
The CPD—which includes the PS, the Christian-Democratic Party of Chile (PCD), the Party for Democracy (PD) and the Radical Social-Democratic Party (PRSD)—has not lost a single presidential election in Chile since the return of democracy after the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in March 1990. The centre-right APC encompasses Piñera’s National Renewal (RN) and the Independent Democratic Union (UDI).
In October 2008, Piñera’s RN achieved significant victories in local elections across the country. For the first time, centre-right parties have more elected mayors than centre-left organizations.
Frei served as Chile’s president from March 1994 to March 2000. Enríquez-Ominami is an elected deputy in the lower house. His father, the late Miguel Enríquez Espinosa, was the founder and secretary general of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), and was assassinated by the Pinochet regime when Ominami was three months old.
Yesterday, Enríquez-Ominami officially left the Socialists. Piñera commented on the matter, saying, "The [CPD] has two candidates today and is more divided, more worn out and without a project for the future."
Bachelet is ineligible for a consecutive term in office. The first round of Chile’s presidential election is scheduled for Dec. 11.
Polling Data
If the presidential election took place this Sunday and these were the candidates, which one of them would you vote for?
|
Sebastián Piñera |
34.1% |
|
Eduardo Frei Ruiz Tagle |
24.0% |
|
Marco Enríquez-Ominami |
22.8% |
|
Alejandro Navarro |
1.3% |
|
Jorge Arrate |
1.2% |
|
Adolfo Zaldívar |
1.0% |
|
Other / None / Not sure |
15.6% |
If a second round takes place, which one of these candidates would you vote for?
|
Sebastián Piñera |
43.2% |
|
Eduardo Frei Ruiz Tagle |
39.1% |
|
Other / None / Not sure |
17.7% |
Source: Ipsos
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,016 Chilean adults, conducted from May 18 to Jun. 1, 2009. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.
